Habakkuk - "A Wrestler with God" Jerome

Jehoiakim's rule 609-597 (cf. Jeremiah historical chart).

According to tradition, Habakkuk was a leader of the Temple choir.

Like Job, Habakkuk is preoccupied with the problem of evil. He looks at the ills of the world and asks God, "If you are so righteous and good and all powerful, why do you not do something?"

The tables are turned: the prophet is discontent and impatient and YHWH is the one who is under indictment.

Structure of the Text

A. Dialogue with God and two complaints to which God responds

1:2-4 Habakkuk "The law grows cold and the wicked lie in wait for righteousness."

When we call out for justice, what do we expect? Personal justice? That the good be rewarded? The bad punished? Reconciliation?

1:5-11 God "I am raising Babylon and things will get worse"

 

Their horses are swifter than leopards,

more menacing than wolves at dusk;

their horses charge.

Their horsemen come from far away;

hey fly like an eagle swift to devour.

They all come for violence.

with faces pressing forward;

they gather captives like sand.

At kings they scoff,

and of rulers they make sport.

They laugh at every fortress,

and heap up earth to take it.

Then they sweep by like the wind;

they transgress and become guilty'

their own might is their god! (1:8-11)

 

God chooses an improbable agent for his punishment, a nation that considers its own might its god.

 

Habakkuk asks, "How can God behold such iniquity."

He uses the fundamentals of biblical theology as an argument used to persuade God to relent.

i. God is righteous; how can he bear to look on treachery? 1:13

ii. God is the creator; how can he allow others to have dominion over his creation? 1:14-17

 

2:1 Habakkuk "I will stand and watch for a response."

2:2-8 God answers with a vision of the appointed time.

 

Write the vision:

make it plain on tablets,

so that a runner may read it.

For there is still a vision for hte appointed time;

it speaks of the end, and does not lie.

If it seems to tarry, wait for it,

it will surely come, it will not delay.

Look at hte proud!

Their spirit is not right in them,

but hte righteous live by thier faith.

 

B. Malediction against evil doers 2:5-20 ending with an affirmation that "The Lord is in his holy Temple, let all the earth keep silent."

C. Canticle of Habakkuk 3:2-19

2-15 a description of God as the Warrior King

16 Habakkuk's response

17-19 A Psalm not unlike Psalm 23 "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death..."

 

While Habakkuk is prepared to appeal to God for justice by suggesting that if God does not act, and his enemies will continue to act as if God did not exist, Habakkuk acts otherwise.

 

According to Habakkuk, "The righteous live by their faith" (2:1). He expresses pity for those who benefit from their own acts of injustice and place their trust in false worship (2:6-19). He affirms that God is present even if his people suffer at the moment: "But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him!" (2:20 ). He ends his prayer with the following expression of his faith:

 

Though the fig does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines;

though the produce of the oil fails

and the fields yield no food;

though the flock is cut off from the fold

and there is no herd in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the Lord;

I will exult in the God of my salvation.

God, the Lord, is my strength;

he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,

and makes me tread upon the heights. (3:17-19)

 

The Nature of Lamentation

 

What is the theology implicit in lament?

God is ultimately just and does not approve of injustice.

God is able to discern true justice whereas we have only limited vision.

What are the consequences of the lose of lament?

Do we become insensitive to injustice when we do not give voice to our witness of it?

Do we take vengeance for it ourselves, if we do not appeal to God for vengeance?

We treat injustice as suffering as though it were God's will. God ceases to be addressed as a God of justice and compassion and is treated as a capricious God in our prayers.

 

 

Activity: Rewriting Habakkuk with Modern Imagery

Habakkuk: O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen?

Or cry to you "Violence!"

and you do not save?

God: Look to the nations, and see?

Be astonished! Be astounded!

 

Group One: 1:7-11

 

Their might is their god!

Habakkuk: Are you not from of Old,

O Lord my God, my Holy One?

You shall not die.

Your eyes are too pure to behold evil.

 

Group Two: 1: 14-2:1

 

God: Group Three 2:1-5

 

Shall not everyone taunt such people and, with sarcasm, say about them,

 

Group Four: 2:6b-14 (three woe oracles)

 

Group Five: 2:15-20 (two woe oracles and a statement about where God is)

 

Habakkuk: 3:1-16

O Lord, I have heard of your reputation

and I stand in awe, O Lord, of your work.

Reinitiate it and publicize it.

In your rage remember mercy.

 

God came from the ancient lands.

His glory filled the sky

and the earth was full of his praise

The brightness was like the sun;

rays came forth from his hand

where his power lay hidden.

 

Before him went disease

and epidemics followed behind him.

Earthquakes leveled the land.

 

God is your anger against the rivers

and your rage against the sea?

 

When you drove your tanks,

flew your stealth bombers to victory,

You brandished your machine gun

and your bullets found their mark at your command.

You split the earth with rivers

the mountains saw you and writhed,

a torrent of water swept by.

The deep shouted surrender.

the Sun raised high its hands

the moon froze

in your search lights

and at the flash of your gun fire.

 

In fury you trod the earth

in anger you trampled the nations.

You came to save your people

to save your anointed.

 

Your crushed the president of the wicked administration.

you exposed its corruption

from the minor official to the executives

You put a hole in the head of his presidential guard

who came like whirlwind to scatter us,

bragging as if ready to consume the poor who were in hiding.

You cut the sea with your trident subs

churning the mighty waters.

 

I hear, and I tremble within;

my lips quiver at the sound,

rottenness enters into my bones,

and my steps tremble beneath me.

I wait quietly for the day of calamity

to come upon the people who attack us.

 

Group Six: 3:17-19